Around the World and Back

And So It Begins

20 hours of flight time, 4 airports, 3 flights, and one very interesting cab ride later, I have finally arrived safely in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The past few days are a bit of a blur as I have been settling into this new home for the summer. Our apartment still does not have internet (although maybe by the time this post goes up we will have wifi….one can dream). My roommate Kaitlin saved me for the first 24 hours by providing me with strongly caffeinated Sri Lankan tea. It is the most delicious tea! Saturday night Kaitlin and I ventured out to find some authentic Sri Lankan food. Good news— I ate all of it and so far no adverse reactions! Proof that my Western stomach can handle a lot.

Pictured Above: Al Baraka tea; packaged in Sri Lanka for Libya. 

On Sunday we took an adventure to Mount Lavinia, which is the closest beach. We traveled to the beach by way of a tuktuk. These strange three wheeled vehicles appear to be the main mode of transportation here. No one follows any rules whatsoever on the road anyway, so Tuk-Tuks naturally do as they please. They can also fit through very small spaces in traffic given their tiny size. They are also extremely cheap, and are a MUCH better option than the public transportation buses, which are absolutely terrifying.

 

Pictured Above: tuktuks- the main mode of transportation here. Three slim people can squeeze tightly into the back and the one driver sits in the front. Each tuktuk is individually decorated by it’s respective driver. 

Pictured Above: Part of Mount Lavinia beach. More pictures will be available for viewing on Facebook as soon as possible. 

After the beach we headed for a café known as Barefoot. It is the only store/café in Sri Lanka that actually sells Emerge jewelry. We wandered around the store for a bit before settling into the outdoor café area, which is in a courtyard behind the shop. A live “Sunday Jazz Brunch” band was playing. Barefoot Café has WIFI, which meant that the three of us quickly went on the Internet and did as many things as possible within an hour. As we caught up on e-mail and such, we sipped fresh squeezed pineapple juice and limejuice. 

Pictured Above: Limejuice at Barefoot Cafe. 

Pictured Above: Some merchandise for sale at Barefoot. 

I have a feeling I will be doing work at Barefoot quite often. It is somewhat of a haven from the craziness of Colombo, and it is also a tourist destination, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. (There are NOT a lot of tourists here. You can go a week or more and only see one or two foreigners).

Following Barefoot, we headed to Arbico, a larger supermarket chain, to pick up some odds and ends. Attached to Arbico is a restaurant known as Urban Kitchen, which officially has the largest and most absurd menu that I’ve ever seen. They have a page for almost every country or at least region of the world. It was relatively inexpensive and very delicious.

Pictured Above: Our drinks at Urban Kitchen 

Pictured Above: My lunch at Urban Kitchen- spiced couscous salad with roasted vegetables including pumpkin, red peppers, beats, and some unidentifiable veggies; all drizzled with a creamy cheese sauce. UNREAL. 

I will try to upload another post tomorrow, but I will be spending the day at one of Emerge’s shelters to begin my internship and I’m not sure if there is internet there. Supposedly the internet people are coming to fix our apartment’s wifi today, but who knows whether or not that will actually happen. Sri Lankan time doesn’t follow any rules! 

Emirates: The Airline With A Night Sky

Landed in Dubai! 

Free wifi here which is great. It’s 4am Friday here, 8pm Thursday at home. I must revoke my statement from the previous post about that flight being the best I’ve ever had. Emirates is BY FAR the most incredible airline I have ever experienced. Once again had a fairly empty plane so I was able to sleep in a “bed.” They also fed us some unbelievable food. Dinner was a choice between chicken masala or lamb medallions. At one point I must have checked vegetarian because they insisted on given me the veggie choice. Nevertheless it was still delectable. 

The flight was about 7 hours. All the seats had a personalized entertainment system with hundreds of music choices and movies. There was even a “camera” option which allowed you to see out of the cockpit, as well as a camera facing down so you could see the ground or water that we were flying over. 

View of the sunset out the window:

Aside from the food, the view, and the entertainment system, there was one more aspect of the flight that I still can’t get over. When it was fully dark outside and everyone finished eating, the lights in the plane slowly faded from an orange color, to a pink color, to a purple color. Soon, they went off completely and stars appeared on the ceilings. Yes, stars. There were STARS on the ceiling. 

I attempted to photograph the stars with my phone and this is the best that I could do. I have been too scared to take my good camera out of my bag so all of the photos thus far have been from my phone. 

Currently I am in a large hallway with lots of reclining chairs in which everyone is sleeping. The first call to prayer of the day just played throughout the airport! It was beautiful as usual. The Middle East feels just as wonderful as I remember. 

Arrival In London

 

Hello from London! 

This was hands down the best flight I have ever been on. Every single person on the airplane had an entire ROW to themselves. So naturally everyone used it as a bed, as I have (attempted) to picture above. We arrived in London at around 5am Boston time, so I groggily found my way to the new terminal and promptly feel into a deep sleep in a large waiting area. When I woke up I truly had no idea where I was but quickly remembered. My biggest accomplishment of the day has been successfully exchanging a significant amount of American dollars into Sri Lankan rupees. The woman who exchanged my money was actually from Colombo, Sri Lanka! Naturally we ended up talking for quite a while about Sri Lanka.

Next flight: London to Dubai. About a 7 hour flight, and then another long layover in Dubai. One more photo for this post: 

Landing in England: cloudy, but very green. 

Greetings to all! 

In less than 48 hours I will be embarking on a journey to Sri Lanka where I will be interning with Emerge Global for the summer. In order to keep family and friends updated, I decided to keep a blog. However, this will be no ordinary blog. As most of you know, I am passionate about photography, and part of my internship actually involves writing photo stories. Telling stories through photographs is an incredibly powerful way to share experiences. Therefore, I have decided to make this a photo blog. My goal is to post 1-2 new photos approximately every day, or every other day, along with a short blurb about where the photo is from and what I have been doing. Check in again in a few days for the first photos and blurbs! 

Thanks to everyone for all the support :)